Catrine Lie Jarman

Over the past decade, new bioarchaeological methods such as isotope analysis and ancient DNA have become standard tools for studying migration and mobility. Yet with an increasing amount of data now available, it is apparent that these methods come with significant limitations: each, on its own, rarely able to confidently characterise migration. It is, therefore, crucial to develop new ways of combining datasets from bioarchaeology, traditional archaeological research, and historical sources to reassess evidence. In Viking Age Europe, this is particularly crucial because we still know very little about the nature and scale of movements in and out of Scandinavia – and particularly into England – as well as about the role of women in this process. My research has yielded large amounts of bioarchaeological and traditional archaeological data on the early presence of Vikings in England and bioarchaeological data from Norway. This has revealed new evidence for high levels of mobility among women and exciting new ways of identifying likely migrants. The project will combine these unpublished and partially published datasets and place them within the context of migration and people movement in Early Medieval Europe. The resulting publications will be of wider value to anthropology as case studies for the combination of new scientific and traditional methods in investigating mobility.